Here comes the Obama-Pain– NY Applebee’s CEO Zane Tankel says he may have to fire employees because of Obamacare. Zane Tankel says this is the most difficult business climate he has ever seen.

Zane Tankel was on with FOX Business this weekend.Huffington Post reported:

An Applebee’s New York area franchisee is the latest CEO to go public threatening drastic plans to avoid costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

“We’ve calculated it will [cost] some millions of dollars across our system. So what does that say — that says we won’t build more restaurants. We won’t hire more people,” Zane Tankel, chairman and CEO of Apple-Metro, told Fox Business Network on Thursday.

Apple-Metro, which runs 40 Applebee’s restaurants, employs from 80 to 300 people at each of its locations. Obamacare mandates that businesses with more than 50 workers must offer an approved insurance plan or pay a penalty of $2,000 for each full-time worker over 30 workers.

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As long as the Obamacare statutes1 are, its implementing regulations are now five times its length. With the publication of two new regulations in the Federal Register on February 27, 2012, we calculate Obamacare regulations to contain 2,163,744 words2 compared to 425,116 words in the Obamacare statutes. That’s a million words longer than the last time we wrote about the length of Obamacare regulations last April.

Past calculations of Obamcare’s length focus on the number of pages it contains. But, as any high school or college student can tell you, the number of pages depends on font size, line spacing, and margins. So, some have calculated Obamacare to be over 2,000 pages long. This was true when it was in bill form. But now that it has been signed into law, its statute form is just 961 pages.

But because Obamacare has the same number of words no matter how you format it, word count is a more accurate way of calculating its length.

Just how long is 2,163,744 words?…

By our count the King James Version of the Bible contains 830,314 words.4 That makes Obamacare regulations two and a half times as long as the Bible! If you add the text of the Obamacare statutes to its regulations, they are together three times as long as the Bible!

We’re now seeing the horrid results of ObamaCare, with many employers hiring only part-time employees, moving existing full-time employees to part-time, and limiting the hours they can work to well below full-time. This is happening with low-wage hourly workers–those who can least afford to lose full-time status and the ability to work more hours. Under ObamaCare, large companies only have to provide health insurance for full-time workers, and these part-time employees will have to bear the cost on their own, under the regressive Obama healthcare tax. The move means that fewer Americans will be able to find full-time work and that more Americans will have to bust their butts to work more than one job to survive the Obamaconomy. For all the “taker” voters who chose Obama and his “gimme, gimme, gimme” worldview, they are now about to get taken, er . . . get what they deserve. I’ve previously said on this site that Americans are the Ned Beatty in Obama’s ObamaCare “Deliverance.” Here’s more evidence how true that is:

Bend Over for Dr. Barry

Some low-wage employers are moving toward hiring part-time workers instead of full-time ones to mitigate the health-care overhaul’s requirement that large companies provide health insurance for full-time workers or pay a fee.

Several restaurants, hotels and retailers have started or are preparing to limit schedules of hourly workers to below 30 hours a week. That is the threshold at which large employers in 2014 would have to offer workers a minimum level of insurance or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 for each worker.

The shift is one of the first significant steps by employers to avoid requirements under the health-care law . . . .

Pillar Hotels & Resorts this summer began to focus more on hiring part-time workers among its 5,500 employees, after the Supreme Court upheld the health-care overhaul, said Chief Executive Chris Russell. The company has 210 franchise hotels, under the Sheraton, Fairfield Inns, Hampton Inns and Holiday Inns brands.

“The tendency is to say, ‘Let me fill this position with a 40-hour-a-week employee.’ “Mr. Russell said. “I think we have to think differently.” . . . . Mr. Russell wants to limit his exposure to rising health-care costs. He said he planned to pursue new segments of the population, such as senior citizens, to find workers willing to accept part-time employment.

He described the shift as a “cultural change” toward hiring more part-timers. . . .

CKE Restaurants Inc., parent of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s burger chains, began two months ago to hire part-time workers to replace full-time employees who left, said Andy Puzder, CEO of the Carpinteria, Calif., company. CKE, which is owned by private-equity firm Apollo Management LP, offers limited-benefit plans to all restaurant employees, but the federal government won’t allow those policies to be sold starting in 2014 because of low caps on payouts. . . .

Home retailer Anna’s Linens Inc. is considering cutting hours for some full-time employees to avoid the insurance mandate if the health-care law isn’t repealed, said CEO Alan Gladstone. Mr. Gladstone said the costs of providing coverage to all 1,100 sales associates who work at least 30 hours a week would be prohibitive. . . .

Benefits consultants said most retail and hotel clients have explored shifting toward part-time workers. . . . “They’ve all considered it,” Matthew Stevenson, a workforce-strategy principal at Mercer. In a July survey, 32% of retail and hospitality company respondents told the consulting firm that they were likely to reduce the number of employees working 30 hours a week or more. . . .

The insurance mandate applies to companies with the equivalent of 50 or more full-time workers, a calculation based on the number of people employed by the company and an average of hours they work in a week. Companies are adjusting schedules now because they will have to review employment rolls for up to a year in advance to determine which workers will be deemed full-time under the law. . . .

Darden Restaurants Inc. was among the first companies to say it was changing hiring in response to the health-care law. The Orlando, Fla., parent of Red Lobster and Olive Garden in February began testing hiring part-time workers in four markets to replace some full-time employees who had left, a spokesman said.

Ken Adams said his 10 Subway restaurant franchises in Michigan have about 60 employees who work 30 hours or more in a given week. Before year-end he plans to cut their hours to below 30 and, in some cases, to reduce positions altogether, he said. A Subway corporate spokesman said it was up to individual franchisees to make such decisions.

So, remind me again how Obama will “turn the economy around” in the next four years, when companies have just told us his policies are going to put more Americans out of work.

Look for things to get a lot worse around America very fast EVEN BEFORE ObamaCare kicks in. This is happening right now.

Another reason Republican governors should hold off on setting up exchanges is that there’s still a pending lawsuit that could drastically affect their implementation decision. Obamacare penalizes businesses up to $2,000 per employee if they don’t provide insurance and one of their employees obtains subsidies to purchase insurance on an exchange. Yet as Cato Institute health policy scholar Michael Cannon and Jonathan Adler of Case Western Reserve University School of Law outlined this past July, the way Obamacare was drafted, the subsidies for individuals to purchase insurance apply to state-based insurance exchanges, rather than ones created at the federal level. In September, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed a complaint in court arguing that businesses should not be subject to the penalty if it’s a federal exchange for which subsidies shouldn’t be available. Cannon argued to me that if this case is successful, it would force Congress to reopen Obamacare. For instance, he explained, if Illinois sets up an exchange and Missouri does not, a favorable ruling in this law suit would mean that Missouri businesses would be exempted from taxes that would be imposed on businesses in Illinois. Thus, even Democratic governors would want to see changes in the law.

On Friday, Sebelius wrote a letter to governors extending the deadline for them to make a decision until December 14, though Cannon argues that it will keep getting extended again, just as has been the case with other legislation.

In one good sign, chair of the Republican Governors Association, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, has said he would not create a state exchange or participate in the Medicaid expansion. Though in Ohio, Gov. John Kasich has been wavering.

We have 2 choices as I see it at this point. Roll over and lose this grand Republic. Or, fight like hell, and maybe keep it.

dwd

The liberal crazies are going berserk and calling for boycotts… as if boycotting is going to make a business hire more people. Boycotts (if even effective) would only drive business down and lead to more layoffs. They expect a business to voluntarily lose money complying with Obamacare, because employees are humans deserving of health insurance… but if that business is losing money then it won’t be around much longer, and when that day comes that it shuts down, those employees would again be without health insurance.

The left just can’t put the pieces together… there’s a logical or mental disconnect…

If government places a greater financial burden onto a business, the business has to react. The business may fire people, may reduce full timers to part time, may halt new hirings, may raise prices, but it will do something. It’s not going to just lose money, because even if it wanted to do that it would go bankrupt. The world doesn’t remain static in response to things like new burdensome legislation–it reacts, it is dynamic, it responds.

It’s the exact same thing with the bank meddling Congress has done… they put limits of overdraft fees (which only morons who can’t keep track of their money get charged), so banks said “ok, no more free checking”. Congress solved one “problem” by creating new ones.

Unintended consequences… it’s frightening that these are so OBVIOUS… which makes it scary that our “leaders” can’t see them — or else they actually intended and desired these “unintended” consequences all along.

If they’re playing the long game, driving up unemployment and government dependency, convincing businesses to cut employees and reduce full timers to part time (thus avoiding having to insure them), driving people into the new government run exchanges… well then they’re just evil geniuses, because it’s totally working.

Oliver

OT: Petraeus Resignation

Cover Up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Both intelligence sources interviewed for this report agree that there is an exceptional cover-up campaign taking place. “All roads lead to Benghazi, and this cover-up is exponentially bigger than anything we’ve seen in Watergate and the Iran-Contra Affair combined. The American people are being lied to at every turn, and the Obama administration has become emboldened by the election results and a disinterested media.”

Those small minded children on Twitchy are calling for a boycott of Applebee’s. They think they’re so smart in what they’re doing, when in reality this man has franchised 40 Applebee’s. This isn’t a nation wide decision by the company.

ChicagoJenn

It seems that we are becoming a nation of part-time workers. I’ve read that Olive Garden and Red Lobster are cutting hours because of Obamacare as well. Part-time workers who will be forced onto Obamacare, as a result, more and more people will become dependent on the government for their healthcare. Isn’t that the plan?

http://www.precisenews.us/pt/blogs/ Steven W.

Yes, that’s the plan, and news out last week right after the election is that the first to lose their Blue Cross + Blue Shield insurance later this year will be the government employees as part of the payoffs with the unions.

squeaky

the guys sitting in the wagon want the guys pulling it to pull faster. these same guys want to share the fruits of your labor with no return contributions on their part.

i wonder if this guy is still around. when replacing one competent worker for the sake of diversity….i’ve seen competent workers replaced by buffoons. have to admit it does destroy myths except they don’t take kindly to one pointing that out. [Because we have really, truly good white people in important positions. And the fact of the matter is that there are a limited number of those positions. And unless we are conscious of the need to have more people of color, gays, other people in those positions we will not change the problem. We’re in a position where you have to say who is going to step down so someone else can have power.]http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2009/09/23/fccs-diversity-czar-white-people-need-be-forced-step-down-so-someone-0

Limousine Barry

Let me be clear, I am doing what I do best – murdering jobs! I don’t care about my donor’s or Applebees! I have their money and their vote. Now it is time to bankrupt them! Ha-ha!

And, next on my list is getting more people addicted to Food stamps. A hungry worker is an easily manipulated worker. He/she is just the type of idiot I need to keep my crappy Administration afloat!

Further, don’t to try impeach me! My job killing spree is just beginning. Besides, I can ride around in my limo with Petraeus and Hillary until the pubs give up! The pubs won’t get to call us to testify! Even if they do I’ll take the 5th! Good day.

Secret Squirrel

I read the entries in the other webpage how liberals reacted and all I can say is they are going to boycott a business that at least employes people because the free stuff these people want is going to cost the business its profitability and thus its ability to employe people. Oh that is a real brainy idea to do, throw more people onto the dole of free stuff and unemployment. What geniuses these liberals are, mental juggernauts that make retarded people look like Albert Einstein in comparison! UGH!

Beam me up Scotty there is no intelligent life left in liberal lala land!

squeaky

as more people join the ranks of the poor the perpetual couch potatoes will find that their once held domain of social benefits will be flooded with new recruits. they might find the numbers cutting into what will become more limited services [financial restrains, etc] and the idea of “sharing the burden” will hold a whole new meaning. they always considered someone else would shoulder the burden. as the money gets tighter and costs go up….out will go any cost of living adjustments.